from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- The Maple Leafs are paying $48 million this season — more than any team in hockey — for the top five players on their roster and to date they have little to show for it. In other words, they’re paying 58% of their salary cap room for 23% of their lineup. Is that new math or old analytics?

- The two-time champion and two-time finalist Tampa Bay Lightning are closest to the Leafs paying $44 million for a Top 5 that includes Conn Smythe Trophy winners in Andrei Vasilevskiy and Victor Hedman. And there are few teams better run than Doug Armstrong’s St. Louis Blues, who have won a Stanley Cup, and only pay $34.5 million for their top five players.

- In the Brendan Shanahan era, Tampa Bay has played 155 playoff games. The Leafs have played 39. If you add it up, that’s about an additional $100 million or so in playoff revenue for the club that the Lightning has taken and the Leafs have not.

- The Florida Panthers confuse me. Yes, they traded for Matthew Tkachuk. Hard not to like that. But they’ve lost Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Mason Marchment, Claude Giroux, Ben Chiarot and quite likely smiling Joe Thornton from their playoff roster. Don’t know how that makes them better

a few more notes plus Simmons picks his all-time centers...